Hello Families! I hope you are having a great week! I miss the cool weather from last week! We sure had a great time at Green Valley on Monday! I hope you saw the pictures if you're on my Facebook page. 

Calendar Dates: 

Sept. 9-26- FAST Testing

Sept. 17- One hour early out/ PTO Meeting 6 pm

Sept. 19- Spirit Day $1 

Sept. 24- 5th Grade Mass 

Sept. 26- Homecoming/ Early Out at 12:10

Oct. 1- 5th Grade Leads Rosary /No mass

Reading- They took their post test in spelling on Wednesday.  They also took their weekly assessment after our story. We will be working on FAST tests the rest of the week, but I may also get a spelling pretest in. We will have to see how things go. 

Math- We have worked on place value into the millions. This week we are working on place value with decimals to the thousandths. This is a difficult concept. I try to stick with money as much as I can so it is something they recognize. That doesn't work with the thousandths.  They did work on writing decimals as a standard number, but also a fraction. 0.25 is the same thing as 25/100.  They will also be writing the decimals in standard, written, and expanded form. 

Religion- We are just about done with our chapter so a study guide and test will be happening soon!  On Tuesday we read about Saint Damian. He was a priest who asked to work with the lepers who were sent to Molokai. He built a church and school for them. He also started a choir. He did end up contracting the disease. The 5th graders will watch a short video on his life in class on Thursday. We talked about what it takes to become a missionary like him. 

On September 24- the 5th graders will be in charge of mass. The following week Father is gone so we will be praying the Rosary as a school instead of mass. 5th graders will be in charge of that one as well. I have divided the class up on those 2 days so everyone will get a job in either the mass or the Rosary.  I will send home any reading parts next week so they can practice with you at home. 

Next week the entire kindergarten class will sit with us at mass! Mrs. Chesling has only been sending half the class the last two weeks. The 5th graders have been doing a great job of helping them learn what to do at mass. 

I am probably going to be putting out my blog on Wednesdays. It is just easier for me. I don't know why! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I am going with some of my co-workers to the Bishop's Dinner on Saturday night in Des Moines. I am excited that we will be having mass at St. Ambrose...it is such a beautiful church. 

God Bless,

Miss Surma